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. E. WEEELEE. METHOD OF GONSTRUGTING COMPOUND MB 110 361,799!

BODIES. Patentefd Apr. 26, l887-.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFEICE.

ELRRIDGE WHEELER, OF BOSTON, MAss, AssIGNoR TO HIMSELF, WARE B. GAY, AND GEORGE w.. GOGIN, TRUSTEES, ALL or SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING COMPOUND IVIETALLICBODIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 361,799, dated April 26, 1887.

Application filed May 12, 1886.

. drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object the construction of compound metallic bodiesof an outer shell or envelope of malleable metal of one melting-point, preferably malleable iron or steel, or combined malleable iron and steel, and an inner or center metal having a lower melting-point than the said outer shell or envelope, the center metal, preferably copper or copper alloys of different composition, being separated from the outside shell or envelope by a layer or body of low heat-conductivity, or a layer or body capable of preventing the heat radiating from the cast outer metal from fusing the center metal.

The metal body referred to is especially applicable, among other things, to the production of a wire.

. Prior to my invention I am aware that an ingot composed of a copper center and an iron or steel covering has been made by first casting a hollow ingot of iron or steel; second,

zincing or tinniug the said hollow ingot, and

then placing copper within said ingotin a cold state; or the said copper has been cast into a hollow ingot, the interior of the said ingot being painted with a coating of lamp-black.

It has been demonstrated by experiment that the copper cannot be controlled during the subsequent heating and reduction to which the ingot referred to is subjected in the manufacture of wire,inasmuch as the heat necessary to work the iron or steel is such as to melt the copper center,the said molten copper during the working or reduction of the ingot running through the pores of the iron orsteel;

The object of this invention is to provide the copper or copper alloy or other metal of low melting-point (which in this case will be used in a cold state, and preferably in the form of an ingot) with a layer or body of such low heat-conductivity as will preventthe said copper or other metal ingot from melting when the iron or steel has been heated to a temper- Scrial No. 202.016. (No model.)

ature necessary for. its proper working or re-- duction. In the practice of my invention the malleable-metal body composed of a covering, preferably, of malleable iron or steel, or corn bined iron and steel, and a'center of a metal having a lower melting-point than the said outer covering, which metal center is separated from the said outer covering by a layer orbody of low heat-conductivity-such as plumbago, German clay,or otherso-called non-heatconducting substancemay be produced as follows, viz: either by first placing the copper,

preferably in the form of an ingot, within a case or jacket, said copper being surrounded by a layer of plumbago or other material of like heat-resisting character; second, placing the said case or jacket and its contents in a mold; and, lastly, pouring or casting malleable iron or steel into the said mold to envelop and surround said case or jacket; or the said-copper ingot may be placed in a bed of plumbago, German clay, &c., within a box-pile, substantially such as shown and described in my application, Serial No. 200,024, dated April 24:, 1886.

By the term malleable as to be herein employed, I mean a metal which when heated may be reduced or elongated by-rolling or hammering, as sheets of soft iron.

Figure 1 in sectional elevation shows amold provided with the case or jacket containing the copper ingot surrounded by a layer or body of low heat-conductivity; Fig. 2, a 1011- gitudinal section of an ingot produced in the mold shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a transverse section of Fig. 2 on line :0 ac,- Fig. 4, a longitudinal section of a bloom made from the ingotshown in Fig. 2; Fig. 5, a longitudinal section of a wire produced in accordance withmy invention; Fig. 6, an enlarged sectional view-on line a2 01: of Fig. 5; Fig. 7, a modification to be referred to; Fig. 8, a perspective view of a boxpile by which to practice my inventiomand areceives within it the copper or other metal of low melting-point which is to form. the cen ter of the metal body, said copper being preferably in the form of an ingot, a

Within the case or jacket (1, and inclosiug the copper ingot on all sides,is a layer or body, a, preferably of plumbago or German clay, but which may be of any other so-called nonheat-conducting material, said layer or body of material being preferably of considerable thickness.

The malleable iron or steel to form the outer covering of the metal body is poured or cast into the mold A so as to preferably completely surround the case or jacket (1. The ingot thus formed of an outer shell or covering, 1), of iron or steel, and an inner core or center, a", of copper, and a layer or body, (d, of low heat-conductivity, as shown in section, Figs. 2 and 3, may be treated in any usual manner and reduced by rolling, hammering, or compression, and cut into blooms. (Shown in Fig. 4.)

The ends of each bloom are closed by caps or plugs 12, and when so closed the said bloom is carried through the usual steps employed in the practice of reducing or drawing wire until a wire of the desired diameter has been produced, such a wire being shown in section,

Figs. 5 and 6, and consisting of an outer ironor steel covering, 1), a core or center, a, as of copper, and a layer or body, a", of low heatconductivity.

Instead of supporting the case or jacket a upon pins a, the said case may be set upon one or more plates or slabs, if, of preferably wrought-iron, as shown in Fig. 7.

Referring to Fig. 9, I have shown the copper ingot a as embedded in plumbago a or other so-called non-heat-conducting material, contained in a box-pile, herein shown as composed of top 0, bottom 0', and side plates, 0 c and provided with ends composed of slabs or plates 0, a blinder, 0 being interposed between the ends 0 and the plumbago of, the said boX-pile being bound or united by straps or bands 0.

The box-pile, when bound as shown in Fig. 8, is then placed in. a suitable furnace and heated to a proper heat to effect a weld between the sides, top, and bottom plates and the ends 0. The heated box-pile is then passed through rolls, or is otherwise suitably reduced, and thereafter cut into suitable lengths to correspond to the blooms shown in Fig. 4, and the said lengths of box-pile are capped or plugged and then reduced in any well-known manner to form a wire such as shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

1 During the heating and subsequent manipulation of the ingot shown in Fig. 2, and also the box-pile shown in Fig. 8, the ingot c of copper or other metal of low melting-point, which forms the center of the completed ingot and box-pile, is prevented from melting by the layer or bed a of plumbago or other socalled non-heat-conducting material, the said plumbago raising,.as it were, the melting-point of the copper, so that the iron or steel may be raised to the desired heat for working them without affecting the copper, thereby maintaining the said copper in condition to be itself worked in conjunction with the iron or steel.

A wire produced in accordance with my invention, and composed of a malleable-metal covering of low conductivity and high tensile strength, and an inner core or center of a metal of high conductivity and low tensile strength, is especially adapted for telephony and telegraphy. I

I am aware that it has been proposed to cover wrought-iron, which has a melting-point at about 3, 000 Fahrenheit, with cast-iron, the melting-point of which is about 2,500 Fahrenheit, the wrought metal, first cleansed to free ment of cast-iron as the outer or enveloping metal and iron of any kind as the center metal, as described in the United States Patent No. 78,786.

-I claim 1. A metal body or ingot adapted to be wrought as opposed to cast into shape, consisting of a center or core of ductile metal of small tensile strength and given melting-point, a surrounding jacket non-conductive of heat, and an external layer of metal of great tensile strength and higher melting-point than the core, and isolated from the core by the jacket, substantially as described.

2. The art or method of constructing compound metallic bodies capable of being thereafter wrought to shape as opposed to being shaped by casting, the same consisting in taking a metal of one melting-point and small tensile strength, surrounding the same with a material non-conductive of heat, and then embedding or enveloping the same in a metal of higher melting-pointand greattensile strength,

. substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ELBRIDGE WHEELER.

WVitnesses:

G. W. GREGORY, J; H. CHURCHILL. 

